A note on Develop has further indications that Battlefield 3 will not be released through Steam, as speculation mounts that DICE's military shooter sequel will not appear on Valve's download service. They quote a comment from a report from financial research firm Baird based on a meeting with GameStop: "The upcoming EA title Battlefield 3 will be sold as a download through GameStop, but not through Steam," Baird says GameStop executives told them. "Given Steam's dominance – and insistence on users downloading a Steam client application – publishers are likely to be receptive to a competitive alternative." Thanks Computer and Video Games.

Dades wrote on Jul 18, 2011, 22:58:That's why you only see the people who have a problem with Steam defending this. If it was about Impulse or Direct2Drive those people would be having an opposition fit. I just hope this decision doesn't hurt the Battlefield franchise, it sells well but not Call of Duty well, they can't afford to be ignoring a source of millions of customers.

Again, this idea that a PC game of Battlefield's stature needs Steam is so ridiculous. Starcraft 2, dude... Starcraft 2.

And even if it did need Steam like a lot of indies do, that would be even more evidence that Steam is too powerful. No one store should dictate what can be a success on the PC.